LINNETS. 493 
spots of brownish black, purplish grey, and reddish brown. Should 
the nest be destroyed during incubation, the pair will build again, 
and lay two or three sets of eggs, if needful; but the male is said to 
take no part in the building or incubation, although he watches 
the female with great solicitude, supplying her with food during the 
process. 
The Linnets feed principally on hemp and linseed, whence their 
popular name. In the winter season, in the absence of their 
favourite food, they eat the young buds of trees, and pick up .the 
stray seeds about farm-yards. Their song in confinement is remark- 
ably sweet, brilliant, and varied, but does not equal the thrilling 
voice of the Blackbird or Thrush. The species are numerous, both 
in Europe and in America, but there is a tendency by naturalists 
to reduce their number, and to regard them more as varieties than 
entitled to the greater term of distinction. 
The Chaffinch (Fringilla cvlebs, Fig. 211) lives in flocks, like 
the Goldfinch and Linnets, except when breeding. But they differ 
from these members of the group in this—that their wing is less 
compact, and that they disperse themselves more in search of food 
than their congeners. Chaffinches are met with all over Europe, 
